


Equal in Death

by espetrell



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:50:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espetrell/pseuds/espetrell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Afterlife fic speculating what happened after the barricade. The character death is all (technically) off-screen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Equal in Death

**Author's Note:**

> I found this almost done on my computer and I'm completely tied up with The Musain Speakeasy so here's a one-shot for you all.

“Hello,” the man greeted Éponine.

Looking around, she could not understand where she was or how she had arrived. Everything seemed to be made of a soft white glow, with the exception of the dark man in black standing in front of her. She became conscious of a sticky wetness on her clothing. Putting her fingers to her dress, they came back red. Then she remembered.

“Are you God? Or Satan?” She asked uneasily. The man - or was it a woman? - gave a soft smile and shook his- her- their head.

“Neither. I am Death,” was their simple response.

“Where am I?” Éponine asked.

“We are in between the world of the living and the world of the dead. You were the first to fall. If you’d like, you can wait for the others.”

Éponine nodded and sat down on the ground. After an immeasurable amount of time, Gavroche was there. Éponine did not see him arrive - one moment he was not, the next moment he was.

“-Rousseau,” Gavroche was singing, and stopped when he saw where he was. Wordlessly, he raised his arms to Éponine, who pulled him into a tight embrace. He turned his head to look at Death, understanding who he was with a child’s intuition.

“Are we waiting?”

“Yes, Gavroche,” answered Death, “Do you want to wait for your friends?”

“Yes, please,” he said.

“Um. Excuse me…?” Éponine did not know whether to call Death sir or ma’am or Your Highness, so she continued on, “Do you know if Marius…?” She could not finish, but she was understood.

“I cannot say for sure,” said Death, “but if you no longer wish to wait, you can ascend.”

“Ascend? To where?”

“A world of the dead. Which one is not my affair.”

Éponine turned to Gavroche, who assured her, “I can wait alone.”

Éponine said nothing, but closed her eyes and exhaled slowly and deliberately. In the moments before she disappeared, she felt the ghost of a kiss on her brow. Then she was gone.

“She better be going to the good place,” said Gavroche with sadness. Death did not confirm or deny.

It was not long - or perhaps it was - before another person, this time a man, appeared.

“Jehan!” cried Gavroche, rushing towards him.

“Gavroche!” Jehan scooped the boy into his arms. “So we’re…” He looked over at Death, noticing them for the first time. “Oh.”

“Do you know about the others?” asked Gavroche.

“We were separated. I do not know,” answered Jehan, still looking towards Death with a question in his eyes.

“If they are not here, they are not dead,” Death responded.

“But we should wait. We should all go together,” Jehan decided. “Can we stay here and wait?”

“Certainly,” Death replied.

And after a time, more arrived: Bossuet, Feuilly, and Courfeyrac. Courfeyrac gave a great shout and pulled Gavroche out of Jehan’s arms and into his own. “You brave boy,” he murmured. Gavroche was about to respond when Combeferre appeared, with three bloody wounds in his chest and anger in his eyes.

“The bastards killed me while I was helping a wounded soldier,” he said with venom.

Feuilly shook his head. Bossuet, who had been lying down on the ground, sat up quickly. “Hold on,” he said, “we’re almost all here.”

“Oh no,” said Feuilly. He buried his face in his hands and groaned when Bahorel, then Joly, made their appearance later on.

“Aha!” said Bahorel with enthusiasm, “I got one!”

“It seems that they got all of us, though,” Joly said pensively, looking around at the somber collection of his friends.

“Everyone but Enjolras,” said Combeferre hopefully, “Maybe he’ll be spared.”

“What about Grantaire?” asked Courfeyrac.

“Was he even there?” was Gavroche’s response.

“I think I saw him asleep back inside the wine-shop,” said Bossuet. It seemed he was about to continue when Enjolras and Grantaire appeared in the same moment, so close to each other that their fingers brushed, nearly interlacing.

“Enjolras!” Everyone said in surprise.

“Grantaire!” Gavroche could be heard yelling above them, “I-“

The shouts stopped when the group noticed, as a unit, that neither Enjolras or Grantaire seemed to be paying them any mind. Enjolras was staring questioningly at Grantaire, who could only give him a thin smile. Then Enjolras leaned over and wrapped his arms around Grantaire, who looked as shocked as the rest of the group was.

“We definitely missed something,” whispered Combeferre.

“Thank you,” said Enjolras, breaking his own silence, “for not letting me die alone.” Stepping back from Grantaire and turning towards the others, he asked, “Are we all here?” Glancing back and forth answered his own question, so he turned to Death and said, “I think we’re ready to move on now.” Death gave them a curt nod. Then they were gone - but not before Enjolras took Grantaire’s hand, equal in death.

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of meshed the movie, musical, and book canons of how and in what order these guys all died. Details like Gavroche singing and Combeferre's death come from the book, but Eponine not being the first to fall didn't sit quite well with me. What kind of song goes, "She was the third to fall / The third of us to fall upon this barricade" ?


End file.
